April 1st to May 31st
Spring 2022 Spring has Sprung Sale
Spring is definitely here. It’s a great time for creating anew!
40% OFF their MSRP on ALL M. GRAHAM & CO PAINTS!
40% off their MSRP on M. Graham & Co Oils!
We set out to make a paint Da Vinci would use. This is it! In the tradition of the masters, M. Graham artists’ oil color is made with pure walnut oil for its brilliance, clarity, texture, and resistance to fading and yellowing. Working in small batches, we craft oil colors true to the roots of Renaissance painting: delicately free-flowing, solvent-free, and with no fillers or additives. With the exceptionally high pigment loads in M. Graham artists’ oil colors, your work will naturally feel more alive and vibrant, imbued with rich, lustrous color for years to come.
Why Walnut Oil?
Centuries after they were painted in walnut oil, works of art by Raphael, Dürer and Da Vinci still retain their luster and richness. Why? Walnut oil has a unique refractive index. Colors ground in this fine oil are more jewel-like and bright. Using walnut oil allows us to increase the amount of pigment of each color, resulting in paints with the highest possible mass tone and tint strength—and paintings saturated with extraordinary color.
Solvent Free!
The Renaissance masters didn’t have to use solvents—and neither do you. We dedicated ourselves to creating solvent-free artists’ oil colors 25 years ago and we’re proud to stay true to that commitment. Avoiding solvents is better for artists, paintings, students, our employees, and the environment.
40% off M. Graham & Co Acrylics!
M. Graham acrylic artists’ color are made with the same devotion and craftsmanship that we use in our traditional media: small batches, quality ingredients, and the highest concentrations of color possible. The flow and delicacy of a gouache, with colors you’d expect from oil. The result is fine art acrylic paint with bold vitality and a creamy delicacy of touch that offers you a world of opportunity — from fine detail to broad, full-brushed applications.
High-Solid Acrylic Emulsion
At the heart of our fine arts acrylic color is our unique, pure acrylic emulsion containing 60% solids—instead of the usual 45% found in artists’ color. We don’t use fillers, wax, retardants, bulking agents or whiteners.
40% off M. Graham & Co Watercolors!
You’re inspired by the world around you — so are our paints. M. Graham watercolors are made with Northwest blackberry honey, recalling the practice of early artists who drew from nature for their materials as well as their subjects. This traditional base creates willing watercolors ready for your brush and yields even, fluid washes. Honey also allows for stronger, truer colors. With a complete range of pleasing pigments — from delicate tints to dark, concentrated colors — you’ll discover more color possibilities with M. Graham watercolors!
Honey… in watercolor?
Artists’ use of honey in watercolors can be traced back centuries. Today, modern watercolorists are rediscovering the many advantages of honey-based paints. Thanks to honey’s natural properties, we can avoid artificial humectants and preservatives in our paints, instead infusing more color. Honey’s viscosity offers artists a smooth, easy application. And, because of honey, our watercolors dilute easily—even after months of disuse—and resist hardening on the palette or in the tube.
40% off M. Graham & Co Gouache!
Discover the best gouache you’ll ever use! M. Graham gouache is made in the time-honored tradition of binding pigment with pure honey and gum arabic, just as it was for Dürer and Boucher. Providing superior coverage and a creamy application, M. Graham fine art gouache delivers lightfast color designed for your permanent artwork. With no added chalk or white, you’re in control of creating the opacity you want—whether a soft, pearlescent glow or colors that pop with lively radiance.
ALL pre-stretched Fredrix Canvas is 40% off their MSRP!
Medium and fine texture cotton and linen, 1″ to 1.5″ bars, gallery wrapped, pro series and more.
“At The Easel” by James N. Lee
Canvas Packs are 50% off their MSRP!
Richeson Lobo Easels are 25% off their MSRP!
Best’s Deluxe Lobo Easel is an easel to accommodate the watercolorist, pastel artist, and oil painter. It tilts forward to reduce glare and prevent dusting, and backward to form a table for gessoing, watercolors, and varnishing. Its retractable mast extends upward to handle a 62″ canvas, and folds down to a compact 65″ height. The painting tray can be adjusted from vertical to horizontal in just seconds. A hinged, oak veneer plywood shelf beneath the frame provides storage for books or supplies. Top and bottom painting trays have rubber grips to hold a canvas securely. It’s made of hand-rubbed, oil-finished, solid red oak. Some assembly required.
Snap Paint Brushes 25% off!
Time to have a little fun! We’ve made lots of good-looking brushes at Princeton over the years, but would we describe any of them as fun? Probably not. Enter Snap!™ Brush Series — A new brush series that’s determined to get you to like it. We think you’ll like the way they look. We know you’ll love the way they perform. Snap!™ Brushes are fun, but not frivolous.
80 individual brushes in a variety of styles shapes and sizes. Both white and golden synthetic are available on short handles for watercolorists, decorative painters, and acrylic artists.
History of Paper
The first signs of paper showed up as papyrus in Egypt and vellum in the Middle East. Paper as we know today, in the woven form of textiles, came from China about 2000 years ago, and the process by which it is made has not changed much throughout the centuries. Paper is made by beating wood or cotton fibers into a pulp, suspending them in water and drawing out sheets of wet fiber onto screens. Paper is made by beating wood or cotton fibers into a pulp, suspending them in water and drawing out sheets of wet fiber onto screens.The resulting sheets are pressed to remove moisture, either by hand or machine, and left to dry. Wood fibers produce the bulk of the paper we see in our lives, from newspapers to cardboard boxes. Drawing papers that are made from wood fibers are well priced, but not suitable for permanent work because the acids they contain quickly cause the paper to discolor and turn brittle. In more expensive papers, acids are removed or neutralized. Cotton fibers interlock and weave better than wood fibers, creating a structure of strength and flexibility in cotton fiber, or“rag,” papers. Papers can also be made from combinations of wood and cotton, or cotton and synthetic fibers.
Choices, Choices, Choices
Deciding what paper to use can be a difficult task. One must consider a plethora of variations of grade, weight, texture and finish. The grade, or quality of paper, can range from inexpensive newsprint to 100% rag. The weight of paper is perhaps the most confusing issue for consumers. Paper is measured by its basis weight (144 “full size” sheets.) The weight is then used to describe a single sheet, i.e. 140 lb. The texture of paper is determined by touch. All papers have texture in variations of smooth to rough.Cold-pressed and not pressed paper have a coarse texture with pits and valleys making them good for watercolors. Hot-pressed paper is smooth and good for drawing or opaque painting techniques. The finish of a sheet is determined by how the sheet is flattened by a machine.
Sizing Up
Sizing paper is like putting gesso on canvas, both make the surfaces less absorbent. Most papers are pre-treated with sizing when they are in the pulp stage. This can be an advantage or disadvantage depending on your preference. If you buy pre-sized sheets and wish to take away some of the sizing, soak the paper in cool water then lightly dab the surface with paper towels to dry. You may also add sizing to a sheet using a commercially prepared soft gel.
Types of Media
Pastels and charcoals are used on drawing papers that have some degree of “tooth” or roughness to hold the particles onto the paper. The more tooth, the more layers of pastel or charcoal a paper can hold. Inks produce better detail on smooth types of paper, although if a paper is too soft and smooth a pen can easily gouge the surface. Traditionally, watercolors use rough, cold-pressed and hot-pressed papers and papers labeled watercolor paper, but many types can be used, including printmaking papers.Acrylic paints can be used on almost any type paper, with or without gesso. Oil paints may also be used on paper but the sheet must first be primed with a ground such as gesso.
Acidity
Paper has a natural acidic level that can destroy its longevity causing discoloration and brittleness. Makers of quality paper use a scale of pH 1, (highly acidic) to pH 14, (highly alkaline) and strive to achieve a neutral level of pH 7. Only pH level 7 is truly neutral, but 6 and 8 can be considered neutral. Neutral papers are typically labeled pH-neutralor acid-free.
Caring for Paper
The nature of paper, as well as its inherent faults, can cause it to become moldy, stained, wrinkled or torn. Some of these problems can be corrected before further damage is done, but once damaged, paper can never be returned to its original state. Mold is characterized by brown or gray-green spots or stains. Caused by too humid an environment, mold–also called foxing–can be treated by removing the work to a dry place and exposing it to circulating air and sunlight for a day to kill the organism.
Stains caused by water or atmospheric pollutants can sometimes be treated by bleaching the work with hydrogen peroxide vapors in a closed environment.
Insects such as silverfish, cockroaches and termites will eat paper and the only protection against this intrusion is insecticide or the removal of the artwork to a safer environment.
When paper is torn, a patch can be made from paper that is thinner than the original art. Feather the edge of the patch with water and feather the fibers around the edge of the patch. Attach the patch with a weak glue to the reverse of the object.
Careless handling, folding and rolling can cause paper to crease, wrinkle or warp. Depending on the nature of the media used in making the work, these physical defects can be reduced by exposing the object to a humidified atmosphere, by pressing under moderate weight or a combination of the two methods.
